


Mistaken For Strangers

by frankiezee



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Werewolves, Lacrosse, Laura is a badass teacher, Miscommunication, Multi, Panic Attacks, Scott McCall & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Slow Build, Texting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-17
Updated: 2014-03-27
Packaged: 2017-12-20 12:07:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/887089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankiezee/pseuds/frankiezee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Stiles you toss, are you even listening to me?” Scott was waving his hand in front of Stiles’ face.</p>
<p>“Uh. Wha… what were you saying Scott?”</p>
<p>“I was asking if you wanted to go out tonight, but you were off in la-la-Derek land.”</p>
<p>Stiles eyes widened and he lunged at Scott, hitting him repeatedly over the head with their only cushion, trying to wipe away Scott’s dopey looking smile.</p>
<p>“I was not in <i>Derek land</i>, whatever the fuck that is. C’mon, lets go to that party Lydia invited us to.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>  <i>Or</i></p>
<p> </p>
<p>the one where Derek and Stiles are buddies from lacrosse camp.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Stiles had been having the week from hell. It was finally Friday night, and despite the fact that living with Scott in the college dorms meant instant bro-time whenever class got out, it wasn’t the same as back in high school. Stiles and Scott used to get up to all kinds of mischief, like sneaking into parties, getting drunk in the preserve or breaking into the school and narrowly avoiding getting arrested. Thankfully that only happened one time though, as Stiles didn’t think he’d be alive today if the Sherriff had gotten a call on a Friday night saying that his son had been detained.

Nowadays when Friday nights came calling Stiles just couldn’t push the feeling of doom away. Freshman year of college was proving to be harder than he’d thought, what with the extra workload he’d chosen to take on, so instead of enjoying the beginning of his weekend he’d taken to moping around complaining to Scott.

Plus, it didn’t help his mood that Scott was currently beating his ass at Halo. And yeah, Scott usually kicked his butt at Halo; he had ever since their late night gaming nights in middle school. But Stiles was seriously having his ass handed to him on a platter.

“Fuck this man, my brain can’t focus on this game right now,” he said as Scott pulled off the most ridiculous headshot he’d ever witnessed.

Scott just laughed as he chucked his controller at the nearest beanbag. “Want another drink, Stiles? You look like you need to chill out a bit.”

“Yeah man. Thanks. I’m just regretting taking this Medieval History subject. I mean, the teacher is a bitch and I didn’t think there’d be this much assessment. I swear she gets a kick out of making students cry.”

“You just need to forget about it man, it’s the weekend. Stop being so strung up about it,” Scott called from the kitchen. “And maybe try and get laid!”

Stiles resisted the urge to argue back and just rolled his eyes instead. It’s not like Scott could talk, considering he’d received just as little action as Stiles had. He flipped open his phone instead only to notice he had a message.

 _Hey. Haven’t heard from you lately. How’s college going?_ **[Received 19:45]**  

Derek!

Stiles had been so busy since arriving at college that he’d barely spoken to his not-so-aptly-named ‘pen pal’. Shit. He kept meaning to send a quick email or text, but he’d been spending every moment either in class, studying, sleeping, or if he ever remembered, shovelling food down his mouth as fast as he could while running around campus like a headless chicken.

 _Hey Derek how’s it going man? I’ve been so swamped, already regretting enrolling in so many goddamn subjects this semester now that the assessment is coming in. I’m super super sorry for not texting you - how you settling into college? Have you been dominating at lacrosse? :)_   **[Sent 20:33]**

“What are you smiling about? Scott had wandered back into the room and plonked on the couch while Stiles was texting and Stiles hadn’t even realised.

“Nothing man, just texting.”

“Oh let me guess, texting your summer camp buddy? Eric?”

Stiles rolled his eyes at Scott for approximately the 18th time that day.

“His name is Derek, man, you know that.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve still never met the guy though.”

“Well you would’ve if you’d come to lacrosse camp last year.”

Scott punched Stiles in the shoulder as he passed over the drink he’d brought him. “Dude, you know I was meant to go,” Scott said as he turned his trademark puppy-dog eyes towards Stiles.

“I know Scott, sorry buddy.”

Even after nearly ten years of friendship, Scott’s big brown eyes and stupid, pouty lips always made Stiles feel bad. Especially since he was right – Scott  _had_ wanted to go to lacrosse camp. It was his friggin idea in the first place. Scott had decided that the lacrosse summer camp between Junior and Senior year would be ‘ _super freaking cool’_ (his words, not Stiles’). They’d both gotten pretty good at the sport and had made it to first line, and even though they had no plans to play it in college, Scott had thought the summer camp would be fun. If Stiles was being honest with himself, he’d have admitted that he was pretty excited for it too. It was going to be the perfect way to get pumped for their last year of high school and lacrosse, and hell, it’d be fun hanging with his buddy all summer too.

It hadn’t taken much pining from Scott before Stiles begrudgingly-yet-secretly-excited-ly decided to go along with the idea, and they’d been all set until Scott dropped out at the last minute. Mrs. McCall’s car had died and Scott had sacrificed summer camp to help out with money problems.

Of course, that didn’t mean Stiles got out of lacrosse camp, despite instantly realizing how shit it would be without Scott. His Dad had already saved up the money for it and thought it would be ‘a good learning experience’ for him.

So Stiles went to lacrosse camp.

He was the biggest sour puss the entire first week of camp. The suicide runs were not good for team building, no matter what anyone said. And the majority of the guys there were all stupid jocks like you’d expect. But then Stiles had gotten to know one guy… and yeah.  Stiles pretty much had the best summer holidays of his life. Of anyone’s life, for that matter.

Stiles ended up bunking with this guy named Derek, and it turned out that they got along pretty well. Derek helped him with lacrosse, Stiles educated him on b-grade horror movies, they both fought over the never-ending argument that was Marvel vs. DC, and they teased all the jocks behind their backs. Never mind that Stiles thought Derek looked like he belonged with the jocks himself. He wasn’t gawky and skinny like Stiles, he was more like a Greek god. A very chiselled, muscular Greek god. Stiles couldn’t help but noticing how good he looked in his lacrosse jersey.

And he noticed himself noticing Derek.

Let’s just say that Stiles arrived home with a new discovery that, yeah, maybe he wasn’t  _just_  into girls.

Anyway, by the end of the camp Stiles and Derek were practically best friends – not that anyone could take Scott’s best friend status away from him - but Derek was pretty awesome. They’d exchanged numbers and emails with a promise to stay in touch. Stiles had joked about becoming proper pen pals, writing letters back and forth, but Derek had just scowled at him in his grumpy yet endearing way that made Stiles laugh.

“Stiles you toss, are you even listening to me?” Scott was waving his hand in front of Stiles’ face.

“Uh. Wha… what were you saying Scott?”

“I was asking if you wanted to go out tonight, but you were off in la-la-Derek land.”

Stiles eyes widened and he lunged at Scott, hitting him repeatedly over the head with their only cushion, trying to wipe away Scott’s dopey looking smile.

“I was not in  _Derek land_ , whatever the fuck that is. C’mon, lets go to that party Lydia invited us to.”

“Ok, but dude, you know your new friend Lydia scares me.”

Stiles rolled his eyes for the 19th time as he chucked another layer on over his t-shirt and pushed Scott out the door.

“She’s harmless.”

 

***

 

“Urgggh. Wh- I can’t. Aaaagh, make it stop.” Stiles groaned as he rolled out of bed, falling with a not so graceful thump onto the ground. Ouch. That was definitely going to leave a bruise somewhere. At least he’d escaped the sunlight that had been slowly cooking his retinas when he’d opened his eyes. All he wanted to do was sleep his hangover away. Instead he’d been woken up by bright sunlight burning his eyes, causing pain to shatter through his aching skull.

Stiles was certain that his curtains had been closed since the beginning of Semester, so he sighed when he realised who must have opened them.

As if on cue, his intruder spoke up from her position by the window. “Stiles, get up right now. You promised to take me out for coffee!”

He shuddered. Lydia. He took back what he said last night – Lydia Martin was definitely not harmless.

“When did I offer you such a ridiculous promise? And why does my mouth taste like tequila?”

“Well Stiles, you and Scott were shotting tequila all night at my friend’s party. And you promised to take me out for coffee as a thank you for escorting your sorry ass back here last night.”

“Oh.”

Stiles vaguely remembered getting way too trashed last night. He even recalled Lydia helping him home. Although,  _dragging_  him home is probably more accurate, since he can still feel the ghost of her death grip on his wrist. She pretty much pulled him home last night while he tried and failed not to fall on his drunken face.

However, he definitely,  _definitely,_ doesn’t remember offering to take Lydia out for coffee at such an ungodly hour of the morning. A glance at the clock tells him it’s nearing half past eleven but it definitely feels more like the crack of dawn.

“Get. Up. Now.”

Lydia sounded serious now. And kind of scary. And she’d probably slept on their shitty couch last night so he should probably be thankful she wasn’t inflicting a worse punishment on him.

“Yes Satan,” Stiles muttered under his breath as he grabbed onto his bed and slowly pulled himself up from the ground. Once he was upright, Lydia thrust a glass of water into his hand.

“Thank you, Satan.”

“You’re welcome,” Lydia said, “now hurry up and get ready, before I strip you and shower you myself.”

Stiles would almost be up for that if Lydia didn’t have an evil glint in her eyes. He’d instantly been attracted to her strawberry blonde hair and fierce personality when they first met in class, but Lydia had made it pretty clear that it was not going to happen. So Stiles finished his water, nearly gagging at the putrid alcohol he could smell on his breath, before eventually finding his way to the heavenly shower.

***

Half an hour later and he was sitting with Lydia in the only good coffee shop on campus. Lydia had at least let him insist that they sit in the shaded corner as they sipped at their cups – no, bowls – of coffee. He was definitely feeling a little more alive but his eyes still felt shot to hell.

It turned out Lydia didn’t just want a free coffee, she wanted to meddle in Stiles’ life too, and was currently trying to convince him to come to  _another_  party tonight.

“Lydia, I have two massive assignments due this week.”

“So do I. And I believe one of yours is for the subject I did last year and I know how smart you are. You’ll breeze through it.”

“It still takes time to write the actual assignment though Lydia, and not all of us are actual Geniuses like you.” Even if Stiles was smart, he wasn’t quite up to par with Lydia. Plus it still sometimes felt like a struggle to stay focused on all the assignments he had. Stiles wasn’t quite as driven as Lydia was, and she didn’t get distracted like Stiles did all the time, or forget when things were due, or get mixed up about class times.

“Oh fuck,” Stiles gulped. “I forgot to take my meds yesterday.”

Lydia rolled her eyes at him. “You’re such an idiot Stiles, how did you ever survive without me? I’ve only known you for less than three months and I’m already amazed you’ve survived this long in life.”

“Cheers for the vote of confidence.”

Lydia smiled at him and rolled her eyes again, letting him know she was just kidding. Stiles swigged back the rest of his coffee and started to stand up when he freezes.

“Oh please, god have mercy.”

In his line of sight was his least favourite teacher, Ms. Laura Hale. Stiles watched as she picked up her coffee from the counter, turned around and, what do you know, she just spotted Stiles in the corner.

“Please don’t come over here, please don’t come over here.” Stiles repeated like a mantra, or perhaps more like some kind of supernatural cursing spell.

He’s definitely the cursed one though, because she heads straight for him.

Lydia turned around upon noticing Stiles’ weird behaviour and, to his shock, smiled and waved at his teacher. 

“Hi Laura!”

“Hello Lydia, how’s my favourite student going?”

Oh yeah. Stiles always forgot that Lydia was a sophomore and that it’s not completely unbelievable for Ms. Hale to have taught her last year. Nor is it surprising that Lydia had managed to become every teacher’s favourite student.

“Hello Stiles. I hope you’re going to have an impressive paper to hand in on Friday.”

Stiles actually groaned out loud and nearly planted his head on the table in an attempt to escape the situation.

“Uh. Yeah I uh, totally. Yep. It’s gonna be awesome.”

Stiles was pretty sure that Ms. Hale and Lydia both rolled their eyes at him in unison.

“I’ve gotta run but it was nice to see you Lydia! We’ll have to catch up soon.”

He watched as Lydia hugged her goodbye before turning her way back to Stiles.

“What?” Lydia said with a quirk to her eyebrow.

“She’s evil.”

“Oh don’t be silly. Laura was my favourite teacher last year. And she’s pretty cool too. You know she’s not that much older than us.”

“She’s still pure evil though. What even is my life?” Stiles asked, as Lydia grabbed him by the cuff of his shirt and dragged him out of his chair.

“C’mon, let’s get you home. You can take your Adderall, have a nap, and then do some study if you want, but then you and Scott are coming out again tonight.”

“What? Awww c’mon Lyds I don’t want to.” Stiles tried to pull a sad face but Lydia just gave him a peck on the cheek and laughed.

“Cheer up Stiles! It’ll be fun. I just want you to have some fun anyway, you’ve been too grumpy these last few weeks. Plus, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

Stiles couldn’t help but worry. He knew that Lydia liked to play matchmaker with her friends but he’d been hoping that he could escape her wrath. It didn’t look like he would be so lucky.

 

***

 

Stiles walked Lydia back to her apartment, and by the time he stumbled through his own door it was nearly two o’clock in the afternoon. He could see that Scott had finally made it out of bed, but even weirder was the fact that he wasn’t home. 

He walked into their tiny kitchen and saw a note on the fridge in Scott’s handwriting.

_Hey Stiles – I’m at the library. I’ll be home in time for the party tonight, Lydia already texted me the deets. xoxo Scott ;)_

The library? What the fuck. Stiles is pretty sure that someone has brainwashed Scott, since he never goes to the library. Neither does Stiles, but that’s different. He preferred to study in coffee shops, or on the couch at home with his trusty laptop. Just not at the library - it reminded him too much of his childhood. But Scott going to the library? That was just plain weird.

Stiles grabbed some pizza out of the fridge that doesn’t look more than a few days old and looked around for his phone that he’d forgotten to grab that morning. Miraculously, he found it after only a few minutes, plugged into its charger. Huh. Lydia really could be nice sometimes.

He flipped it open and saw a message from Derek, and Stiles would be lying if he said his heart didn’t tug a little at the sight of Derek’s name on the screen. He’d missed not talking to him as much lately. His last year of high school had involved copious amounts of texting most days, but college had kept Stiles so busy that their daily texts had been switched out to occasional emails.

 _Good afternoon. Are you awake yet? You were pretty drunk last night. Hope you’re not in a ditch somewhere you loser. Text me._   **[Received: 10:01]**

Shit. How did Derek know he was drunk last night? Stiles flicked back through their last messages, and yeah, he definitely didn’t remember sending him any of those texts last night. God knows what he said in his drunken state. Stiles grabbed his Adderall and some Gatorade out of the fridge and lay down on the couch to scroll through the messages.

 _Don’t wear yourself out too much Stiles. You’re meant to have fun too. I guess its been good so far for me. Lacrosse seems like it’ll be fun. This one guy Whittemore is a total jackass though, you’d have liked teasing him. Won’t be as fun as playing with you at camp though, even if you were pretty sucky ;)_   **[Received: 21:30]**

 _Hey shuttup I was the best lacrosse player the world has ever seen. What are you doing tonight?_   **[Sent 21:48]**

 _You wish. I was going to go to this party but I’m pretty tired so I’m gonna catch up on study. You?_   **[Received 22:03]**

 _Stiles? You are the worst at replying to text messages, ever. Night._   **[Received: 23:55]**

 _DEREJKKK!_   **[Sent: 02:03]**

 _Yes?_   **[Received: 02:10]**

 _Duuuuude I misss you. Whqt side of the counryty r u on agan? wiish you cud come have some teqila wit me n scott!_   **[Sent: 02:17]**

 _You’re drunk._   **[Received: 02:18]**

 _Yepp im is very drnk. Hang on im callijfng u._   **[Sent: 02:30]**

That’s where the messages from last night stopped. And what a surprise, when he checked his call log, there was a 20-minute phone call to who else, but Derek. Which was weird, because they usually texted heaps, but Stiles didn’t think they’d ever used their phones for actual phone calls.

Stiles figured that he may as well text Derek a quick apology. Who knows what he said last night. Hopefully he hadn’t let slip about – well - he hadn’t really owned up to it himself yet, but Scott was always joking that he had a crush on ‘Eric or Derek or whoever’. And maybe Scott was right, maybe he did. Just a little crush though, nothing serious. He just missed the guy is all, right?

 _Hey Derek. It definitely feels like I slept in a ditch. Look tbh I was smashed last night, I hope I didn’t say anything stupid, I don’t really remember calling you or anything. Tequila is the devil :(_   **[Sent: 14:30]**

Stiles sat on the couch fiddling with his phone for about twenty minutes. Then he figured, fuck it, Derek would text him back when he is free. So Stiles opened his laptop and got stuck into Ms. Laura ‘evil-bitch’ Hale’s assignment.

 

***

 

“Scotty!”

Stiles was closing his laptop after making some pretty good progress on his assignment when Scott walked through the door.

“Where you been bro?”

“Library, didn’t you get my –“

“Yeah, yeah I saw your note. Just didn’t believe that you were actually studying, and in the library of all places. And on a Saturday!” Stiles wondered if it’s the end of the world or something, or if maybe he’d been sucked into some alternate reality where Scott was actually a studious student.

Scott looked kind of guilty as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well I sort of went ‘cause I met this girl last night.”

Stiles immediately jumped up from his seat and leapt over the back of the couch, crashing onto the ground before hopping straight back up to grab both of Scott’s shoulders.

He shaked him lightly as he jumped up and down with excitement. “What girl, you sly minx?”

Scott palmed Stiles away from him and laughed.

“Don’t you remember meeting her last night? Her name is Allison. I mean we didn’t talk for that long before she left the party but she told me she works at the library.”

Stiles grinned. He could sort of remember Scott pining over some girl from across the room. She was a gorgeous brunette but Stiles couldn’t remember much else about her.

“I was pretty drunk last night, so I don’t remember shit.” Stiles admitted.

“Yeah I know Stiles. I tried waiting for you but you wouldn’t leave the party. Sorry for ditching you, Lydia brought you home though?”

“Yeah she did, but dude, back to Allison. You thought it would be a good idea to stalk her at her workplace?”

“No! I mean. I really did get a lot of work done; I wasn’t just there to stalk her. And I left her alone ‘cause she looked really busy most of the time. But it was annoying, every time I wanted actual help finding a book or whatever, this stupid dude swooped in to help me before I could get Allison’s attention. He was such a cock block.”

Stiles doubled over, hands holding tightly onto his knees as he let out a huge laugh. Just the thought of his friend spending a whole day studying at the library to get a girl’s attention had him cracking up. Maybe this Allison would be a good influence on Scott.

“So you really like this girl huh?”

“Stiles, I- I’m in love. Well, ok that’s stupid. But she’s so awesome dude! She’s like the nicest person I’ve ever met. But I’m still annoyed I didn’t get to talk to her much today, all we did is like, wave at each other. I’m such a dork.”

Stiles patted Scott’s back. He understood how hard it was to talk to women. Stiles had always been better at talking to men since his discovery that he was bisexual, even if it mostly just resulted in make out sessions at Beacon Hills’ one and only gay club.

“That stupid Derek guy though, arrgh! If you ever go to the library, look out for the douche with the Derek name badge. Your lacrosse buddy doesn’t go to college here does he? That would be awkward if it was him.”

“Scott, you know I don’t go to the libr-“

“Yeah I know,” Scott said as he pulled Stiles in for an unexpected hug. “Your mum was a librarian. I get it.”

This was why Scott was Stiles’ best friend.

Stiles squeezed back and let go before he got too emotional. Scott just smiled at him and poked him in the ribs.

“And no, it can’t be the same Derek. Don’t you think I’d know if we were attending the same college?”

They hadn’t actually talked too much about college, despite their constant chatter over the last year. They tended to joke around and talk about movies or whatever funny shit they’d gotten up to that week. But he knew that Derek and his family were from New York and Stiles hadn’t wanted to leave California, despite the secret thoughts in the back of his head that wanted him to end up at the same college as Derek. That would have meant leaving his best friend and his Dad though, and he couldn’t do it. Derek had been offered tonnes of scholarships (because yes, he was that good at lacrosse), and Stiles was happy with his pick of academic scholarships here that were still close enough to home. It would’ve been nice to have Derek here though, Stiles thought to himself.

Stiles snapped back to the conversation. Maybe he had been in what Scott liked to call la-la-Derek land.

“Anyway Scott, don’t you think I’d have introduced you to Derek if he was here?

“I know dude, whatever, wanna play Halo?”

“Hell yeah, I’m ready for revenge after last night!”

Scott kicked his butt as usual, but it took Stiles’ mind off everything. He was still kind of worried about whatever Lydia had planned for that night. And about what he’d said to Derek on the phone the evening before. Hopefully it was nothing major. He was itching to text Derek about the name-stealer they’d discovered on campus, but he wanted to wait until Derek had replied to his message first. Maybe this double Derek thing was some kind of good sign?

Stiles snorted back a laugh.

Yeah, a sign that today was definitely too weird. Hopefully tonight wouldn’t be too weird though, maybe Lydia would try and set Stiles up with some kind of Derek look alike. He probably wouldn’t complain about that.

Stiles really had to stop thinking about Derek so much, so he turned back to halo and managed to beat Scott for once.

 

***

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slow update.
> 
> This chapter has some Derek POV as well as stiles, and more texting between the boys.

Stiles and Scott were still going hard at their Xbox session when Stiles’ phone suddenly went off, playing some top 40 pop song Lydia had programmed to play whenever she called. As much as he’d rather keep playing Halo, he didn’t really feel like listening to what sounded like Miley Cyrus, so he figured he’d be a good friend and answer the call.

“Yellooo?”

“Stiles! Are you and Scott still on for tonight? Don’t think of trying to talk your way out of it, I can hear your brain trying to go through excuses from here.”

Stiles had been about to jump in with something about a sudden fever Scott had come down with but instead he snapped his mouth shut. There’s no way she could read his thoughts, right? Maybe she had transcended to a new level of genius.

“Scott already told me he was keen, so there’s no way I’m letting you back out.” Lydia chirped through the phone with a smirk to her voice.

“Lydia, Scott only wants to go ‘cause that Allison girl will be there, he’s practically ready to have her babies.” Stiles tried not to sound like he was whining, but frankly, Scott had been going on about Allison’s dimples for the last two hours and he was already understanding just how full on his best friend’s infatuation was with this new girl.

“Well yes, Allison will be there. So you’re going to be a good wingman and accompany Scott. And then I can introduce you to my friend Erica.”

Stiles dropped down onto his bed and tried not to sigh too loudly. Looks like he wouldn’t be escaping Lydia’s attempts at playing matchmaker.

“Who’s Erica? You were serious about trying to hook me up with some girl? Ugh.”

Stiles tried to ignore the fact that he was disappointed Lydia wasn’t setting him up with someone of the other sex, preferably someone tall, handsome and with dark hair. He’d just have to resign himself to the fact that he was going to be stuck talking to some girl who was probably a pretentious sorority sister all night.

“She’s a good match for you Stiles, just deal with it. There’s free booze, so I don’t see why you’re complaining anyway.”

Lydia sure knew the way straight to his heart. Free alcohol?

“We’ll be there.”

“Love you Stiles.”

“Thanks Lydia, now I’ll let you go so you can straighten your hair or devour the hearts of young men or whatever it is you like to do on Saturday afternoons."

Stiles was sure that he heard Lydia snort before she hung up on him.

 

***

 

“Derek, I know what you’re doing.”

Derek looked up at his sister who was currently standing above him with her arms folded, the stern look on her face making her look eerily like their mother.

Sometimes Derek regretted moving in with his older sister. Like now, when instead of lying on the couch brooding in peace, he was being interrupted by Laura and her meddling ways. It was a Saturday night, and he had no plans except to maybe watch some movies later and work on an assignment, and Laura had no right to be prying into his life. So he ignored her and went back to staring at his phone.

“Just text him back already.” Laura said after a moment of silence from Derek. “I don’t know what horrific thing your summer camp buddy could have said last night on the phone that’s made you so moody, but I’m sure he’s waiting for your next message.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “He was drunk when he rang me. He didn’t really say much at all, so it’s fine Laura. I’ll text him back when I have something to say.”

“Whatever you say Derek, you’re the one who’s been staring lasers at his phone all afternoon.”

Derek huffed and decided his bedroom would be much more comfortable than the lounge room. He really needed to get away from his overbearing sister. She meant well, but he didn’t want to tell her what Stiles said last night.

The problem was that Stiles _did_ say a lot last night. At first Derek had been annoyed to be woken up at 2am in the morning, but he’d left his phone on full volume so he kind of deserved it. But before he’d managed to get back to sleep, his phone was ringing. And it was Stiles, Stiles who never called Derek. Just like he never called Stiles. It was just how things went.

But lo and behold, at 2.30am last night he was answering a phone call from Stiles. And yes, he was definitely drunk. At first all he heard from Stiles’ end was a lot of yelling and the background noise of party music. And then Stiles started rambling about college and his friend Scott and some girl called Lydia, and how much he missed Derek. Derek hardly got a word in edgeways. The kicker though, was the way Stiles ended the conversation.

_“- and college just would be so much cooler with you here Derek, I think you’d really like it I mean the lacrosse team is meant to be sooo awesome and my friends are awesome and this party is fucking AWESOME. Did I tell you there is tequila? Mmm I love tequila, did I mention I love tequila? I had some beer as well but then me and Scott started drinking tequila, but I haven’t seen him in a while, but I seriously love this tequila, love it! And you. I love you Derek, I keep denying it but I think about you all the time. I really think I love you and your stupid pretty fac-“_

At that point the roaring from the party had gotten too loud to hear Stiles and a couple of seconds later the call had disconnected. Derek had basically been in shock, his mind blank at what he’d heard, with absolutely no idea what to say or think or feel or do. It wasn’t until 5am that he fell back asleep. He knew Stiles was drunk, like really drunk. But did he mean what he’d said?

Laura knew that Derek had a crush on his friend from lacrosse camp. He tended to ignore it because they hadn’t seen each other in such a long time, but hearing Stiles’ voice last night stirred up all those feelings again. And hearing stiles say he loved him? It felt like his feelings for Stiles had been turned up to eleven.

But then he’d texted Stiles this morning, and it turned out Stiles couldn’t even remember calling Derek.

Derek felt lost.

Did Stiles mean what he said?

Or did it not even matter? It’s not like they ever saw each other in real life. Derek was at Berkley with Laura, deciding since she’d been teaching there he’d attend there instead of New York, since the lacrosse scholarship he’d gotten was really good. But Stiles had applied at UCLA so they were still pretty far apart, even if they’d made it to the same side of the country. Did Derek even tell Stiles he’d moved to California?

“DEREK, JUST TEXT HIM!” Laura’s yelling from the kitchen brought him out of his thoughts and back to reality. Derek chuckled. Maybe his interfering sister was right, and Stiles might eventually remember what he admitted to Derek last night. Maybe.

 

***

 

_Hey Stiles. Don’t worry about it you didn’t really say anything last night except how much you love tequila. Nothing too embarrassing :p_   
**[Received: 20:40]**

**  
**Stiles jumped as his phone went off. His kim possible message tone had always been slightly too loud to subtly announce a new text.

“Shit, shit, shit! Derek finally replied to me Scott, and… yep, thank god! I apparently I didn’t say anything embarrassing to him!”

“That’s awesome dude,” Scott high fived him and slapped him on the back, “now are we going to head out or are you gonna pine over your boyfriend again?”

“He’s not my boyfriend you jackass. But you know how you’ve been, errr well, saying I have, um, a crush on him?” Stiles avoided making eye contact with Scott, instead making his way to his wardrobe to flick through his highly regarded collection of plaid shirts.

“Did you finally admit that you’ve been crushing on him for over a year?” Scott asked.

Stiles spun around quickly to face Scott, accidentally pulling half of his clothes out of the wardrobe with him.

“It hasn’t been a year!” Yep, that definitely came out less manly than he’d expected, and more like a girly squeal. He cleared his throat.

“I mean, maybe it has been a year? I don’t know. Yesterday I just realised how much I missed talking to him, you know? And yes I like him.”

“Even after all this time?”

Stiles huffed out an irritated breath. “Scott, you know what I’m like, I tend to dig in for the long haul. Remember Missy in forth grade? And Gabby in eighth grade?”

“Good point. So you like Derek. That’s awesome man, maybe you guys can meet up on break or something.”

“I dunno man.” Stiles pulled on a simple blue plaid shirt and started searching around for his wallet. “We’ve never really talked about meeting up, you know, he’s on the east coast, we’re on the west.”

“That sucks dude, it really does. Maybe there’s someone at the party tonight who can occupy you for a while instead. I know I couldn’t cope if Allison lived on the other side of the country! Lydia told me that Allison had moved around a lot when she was growing up.”

And with that Stiles knew Scott had left him for his little world of Allison. Scott was a great guy, but he fell fast, and he fell hard. So what if Stiles liked to crush on people for years at a time? He’s pretty sure that Scott’s version of crushing doesn’t exist, instead skipping to full blown obsessiveness.

Stiles' phone went off again, and once again it was Derek.

_Oh and you also spoke about college, your buddy Scott, more tequila, and you mentioned some Lydia girl?_  
[ **Received: 20:45]**

And with that, Stiles remembered Lydia and her wicked plan to set Stiles up tonight.

_I definitely do not love tequila anymore. Or Scott, since it was his idea to start drinking it last night. Lydia’s this crazy new friend I made at college :) you’d probably like her! But she’s a bit of a meddler and wants to set me up with this girl tonight at a party. Come save me :(_   
**[Sent: 20:46]**

_It might take me a while to get there Stiles. You never know, she might turn out to be alright? If Lydia’s your friend she wouldn’t just set you up with anyone_   
**[Received: 20:48]**

Stiles spent at least two minutes reading that last text. Was Derek encouraging him to take a chance with this Erica girl? He’d rather if Derek was encouraging him to be with Derek instead.

_I guess. So what, I should go for it?_   
**[Sent: 20:51]**

_Sure, if you like her, why not? Have fun - don’t get too drunk at your party this time. Night._   
**[Received: 20:55]**

Stiles sighed. Maybe he’d been hoping Derek would act a bit jealous, but instead he’d basically talked him into having some fun with another girl.

“C’mon Stiles, I’m ready dude,” Scott glanced over at Stiles as he walked to the door, taking in his friend’s defeated posture, “You all good?”

Stiles sighed for what felt like the ten millionth time that day. Maybe he wasn’t getting enough oxygen to his brain; he’d read somewhere that people who sighed a lot were just trying to get more oxygen to their brain, or something like that. Maybe all that tequila had seeped into his mind and messed with his-

“Stiles!” Scott placed a hand on his shoulder, his puppy dog eyes filled with a hint of worry.

“Yeah man, just got caught up in my thoughts. You know what I’m like so who cares, let’s hit the road!”

 

***

 

Derek flicked his phone across the bed and sighed, bringing his hands up to rub at his temples.

He was hoping that Stiles liked him back. But it only took a few text messages to count out that wish. Stiles was going out tonight and hooking up with some girl, while Derek sat at home moping, too grumpy to even socialize with his sister.

Derek made his way out to the kitchen to help Laura with whatever dessert she was working on. It looked like she was half way through making a batch of banana muffins, his favourite.

“Hey bro, did you confess your undying love for him?” Laura asked with her usual mischievous tone.

Derek just huffed, too tired to try and make his words work for him.

Laura, being the perceptive older sister she was, immediately came over and gave him a hug.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered into his ear. Sometimes Laura knew exactly when to play nice and be the supportive sibling, and she was doing it perfectly right now.

“He’s off hooking up with some girl at another party. I thought he might’ve liked me but I guess I’m being stupid.” Derek said, his words muffled into Laura’s hair.

Laura pulled back from the hug and looked at Derek.

“Don’t be stupid, you’re not stupid. I mean, you are, but not about wanting him to like you,” Laura’s eyes crinkled as she chuckled quietly before turning more serious.

“He doesn’t know what he’s missing out on.” Laura gave his shoulders a firm squeeze, and then reached behind her to grab something. “Now are you going to help me with these or not?” Laura asked, flicking a big wad of mushed up banana off her spoon and onto Derek’s face.

Oh, she was going down.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I thought I'd have this chapter finished a week after the last one, but comic-con happened. And then life happened. Lots of life. Definitely a bad idea not to write this whole thing before posting, but WIP it is. 
> 
> So surprised at how many people actually checked out the first chapter too btw! Thanks so much :) im on tumblr [here](http://keziahanne.tumblr.com/)


	3. Chapter 3

So it turns out that Stiles totally understood why Lydia thought Erica would be a good match for him. She wasn’t preppy like most of Lydia’s other friends, in fact it was kind of surprising that Lydia was even friends with Erica. Sure they were both feisty ball-busters, but Erica had spent the last half hour talking about the upcoming Marvel movies with Stiles. The most Stiles had ever gotten out of Lydia on the topic was that she thought Chris Evans had a nice ass (Stiles agreed, naturally).

“The new Captain America movie is gonna be way better than Thor 2 Stiles, it’s a fact. Deal with it. Now don’t move while I get us another drink.” With that Erica sashayed her way to the kitchen while her long blonde hair swung behind her. 

Stiles sighed and leant back against the wall where they’d been talking in the corner. He’d probably already had enough to drink but in the last hour or so he’d learnt it was easier to just go along with Erica. Stiles liked her though; they’d bonded within five minutes of Lydia’s introductions, coming together over their mutual disdain for some of the stupider jocks that had rocked up to the party shirtless. The fact that they were douchebags outweighed the fact that they were eye candy, and Erica had unexpectedly agreed with him.

“Hey Batman, I got you a beer.”

Stiles looked up as Erica thrust a red cup in front of his face.

“Thanks Catwoman.” She was wearing a lot of leather, so Stiles figured it was a pretty apt nickname.

Erica seemed content to sip from her drink, letting the conversation between them grow quiet. While it wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, Stiles’ energetic tendencies meant he couldn’t help but open his mouth to say something. He didn’t want Erica to be feeling awkward, or feel like she owed it to him to hang around him all night.

“Soooo if you wanted to go talk to someone else Erica, that’s fine. I know Lydia thinks it’s her job to play matchmaker but –“

Erica interrupted Stiles mid-sentence with a hard shove to his chest that almost had him spilling his beer. “Stiles you duffer. I’m having more fun talking to you than I would be if I were talking to any other retard at this party. Besides, I don’t mind Lydia trying to pair us up. I’ve seen you around campus before and I always thought you were kind of cute.”

Erica laughed at him when his head shot up, eyes wide in surprise.

“You think I’m cute?”  
  
“Of course I do Stiles, I think you’re hot. When’s the last time you looked in the mirror?” She finished her sentence by flicking Stiles in the nose and he had to laugh, loosening up and no longer feeling so self-conscious.

“You’re not so bad looking yourself,” Stiles replied with a wink. He wasn’t lying either, Erica was gorgeous, if not a little scary in her leather jacket and spiky black heels. He might have spent all day thinking about Derek, but Erica was definitely his type. Especially if you took into consideration the fact that his type was everyone with a pulse. He wasn’t a fussy person, okay?

“Oh shit Stiles I forgot to tell you,” Erica said as she reached her hand out to squeeze Stiles’ arm affectionately. “Your friend Scott left fifteen minutes ago, he told me he was leaving with Allison.”

Stiles groaned.

“He bailed on me again?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll look after you.” Erica quickly pulled Stiles to his feet, and as the room spun around him momentarily he realised he was probably a bit drunk after all.

Stiles followed Erica as she led them to the kitchen for another drink. He couldn’t even be bothered to be mad at Scott for ditching him since he’d walked home on his own plenty of times before. Or maybe he wouldn’t head home - Erica did seem pretty keen on him. Was he into Erica though? He was. But did he want that? If _that_ meant sex? Was sex on the table? Shit. Stiles’ brain was hurtling at the speed of light again, thoughts spinning in and out of his head before he could focus on anything. It was a relief when Erica grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the makeshift dance floor.

Dancing with Erica, this he could handle. He wasn’t a bad dancer, especially when he was drunk and didn’t give a shit what anyone thought. He let his mind clear as he focused on nothing but the feel of the music pumping through his body. Erica crowded close and he let his eyes drift shut, enjoying the feel of someone else’s body pressed against his. It was nice. It was far preferable than a long distance texting relationship with his crush from lacrosse camp. So he let himself relax and when Erica pressed her lips against his, he didn’t hesitate to kiss her back. He opened his lips and deepened the kiss, letting his hands slide under the hem of Erica’s t-shirt and reaching around to settle on her back.

It wasn’t until he started getting lightheaded that he realised he and Erica had been making out on the dance floor for over half an hour. He pulled away and shared a smile with Erica, trying to ignore the smug look that Lydia was currently sending their way. He didn’t know how long she’d been watching them, but she was currently sipping her cocktail, leaning against the wall directly in Stiles’ line of sight over Erica’s shoulder.

“Let’s go back to my place, yeah?” Erica asked.

Stiles tried not to let the panic he was feeling show as he grabbed Erica’s hand and smiled.

“Lead the way, m’lady.”

Erica full on snorted at that, and Stiles felt a little less nervous. Erica was cool. He was cool. He could do this. He let himself enjoy the cool night air as Erica led him outside and pulled him down the street towards her place.

 

***

 

Stiles felt sick. 

Not from the alcohol or anything like that, but there was a pit in his stomach that he couldn’t figure out. All he knew was that once they’d gotten to Erica’s place, he’d started feeling nervous again, and now it was getting so bad that he just felt plain old sick.

Erica’s roommate was out, so they’d collapsed on the couch when they’d arrived and started making out again. And it was good. Better than good, it was amazing. It had been too long since Stiles had kissed anyone, and he liked Erica. She was funny and feisty and liked comic books and Stiles was wondering where she had been all of his life, since they were so well matched and would make great friends. But that was just the problem. Stiles was starting to think that maybe he didn’t like her as anything more than a friend. Sure, she was beautiful and his dick was responding to their massive make out session, but he felt guilty. For some reason, now that he was minutes away from getting into someone’s pants, his mind kept coming back to Derek. 

Derek - whom he hadn’t seen in over a year, and whom he had been too busy to talk to for the past month. Yet all it had taken was a couple of text messages to bring back the surge of butterflies Stiles felt when thinking about Derek. Plus there was a phone call, which was kind of new for them.

Oh.

Shit. _Shitshitshitshitshit._

The phone call. Thinking back, things suddenly seemed more clear, and Stiles can specifically remember saying some stupid shit to Derek, such as, oh just you know THAT HE LOVED DEREK. And then he’d dropped his phone and forgotten all about Derek when someone and given him another shot of tequila.

Stiles snapped back from his thoughts when Erica pulled away and pinched his side lightly, directing a look of concern towards him once she’d gained his attention.

“Stiles, you ok? You’re sounding a bit breathless.”

She was right. Stiles was finding it hard to breathe in enough air, he’d been so caught up in making out with Erica. Oh god, what was he doing. He felt like he was cheating on Derek, and yes that was probably the most stupid, unwarranted feeling ever, but he couldn’t help it. Even if his crush was stupid, he realised that hooking up with Erica wasn’t going to make it go away or help him feel better. All it was doing was making him feel worse.

And he couldn’t _breathe_. He was drunk, sitting on the couch gasping for air in some unknown apartment, having a fucking panic attack. He must’ve done some bad shit in his past life to be getting this kind of karma now.

“Stiles, what’s wrong?”

Shit, Erica sounded worried. He was probably freaking her out, having a panic attack right after kissing her.

“Panic… attack,” he gasped out between breaths. He was feeling lightheaded and could barely remember what to do, it had been two years since his last panic attack and _ohmygod_ , in that time he’d somehow forgotten how horrible they were.

He realised that Erica was clutching his hand and trying to tell him something. He tried not to focus on the overwhelming feeling of panic and listened to her voice instead. “Just breathe Stiles, you’re fine. You just have to take deep breaths.”

Deep breaths. He could do that. He breathed in slowly and tried holding it in, before gradually exhaling. He focused on counting in his head, giving himself something to focus on like he used to do when he was little. Erica was still holding his hand and for some reason it helped ground him, and his breathing slowly evened out until he finally felt like the panic attack was over.

“Are you okay?” Erica asked.

He was feeling shaky and exhausted and overwhelmingly embarrassed. But mostly he was good.

“I’m fine. Sorry, I haven’t had one of those in years and I honestly don’t know what came over me.”  
  
“Stiles, I didn’t mean to pressure you or anything.”  
  
Of course Erica thought she was somehow to blame for his body’s fucked up reaction to the situation. He couldn’t help but sigh as he collapsed back against the couch.

“It wasn’t your fault Erica. And it’s not like that. I just. I was into it, but then I started feeling guilty when I got here and I just. Freaked out all of a sudden, which is something I like to do.”  
  
“Guilty?”

“Don’t laugh ok? I don’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend or anything. But there’s this guy I like.”  
  
Leaning forward and hitting him in the arm playfully, Erica said, “and you realised you liked him enough that you didn’t want to be here with me?”

Stiles laughed, and some of the tension leaked out of his body with it.

“It’s stupid, and I can’t believe I let myself panic. But I just started thinking about him and I felt so guilty. I’m sorry.”  
  
“You’re the biggest idiot in the world Stiles. But it’s all good.” Erica smiled, a sweet almost shy smile unlike her usual verbose self as she grabbed Stiles some water from the kitchen.

“Now, I want to know more about this guy. Why aren’t you together?”

“Well let’s see. He goes to college somewhere on the other side of the country, we haven’t seen each other in over a year since I met him at camp, and I don’t even know if he likes me. In fact, he probably doesn’t, since I’m pretty sure I confessed my love to him last night and he pretended it didn’t happen.”

“Wait here.”  
  
Huh?

“Where are you going?”

Seriously, what was Erica doing? Stiles felt like he had shared his soul with her, and she’d instantly hopped up off the couch and skipped into another room.

Stiles could hear her rustling around somewhere around the corner and he was considering just getting up and going (even though he had no idea where he was), when Erica came back into the lounge room and plonked on the couch next to him. She saw the puzzled look on Stiles’ face and she grinned, a toothy grin that was almost scary matched with the devilish glint in her eyes.

Stiles noticed she was hiding something behind her back and was about to ask, or run away, when she whipped out a block of chocolate.

“Stiles, you’re going to tell me your whole sob story, and we’re going to eat chocolate. And we can forget that the rest of tonight ever happened, deal?”

Stiles snatched the chocolate out of her hands and started tearing it open. Maybe this was what he needed, a good chance to vent, some chocolate, and a receptive member of the opposite sex who could surely provide more insight than Scott could. Maybe she’d know what to do about Derek, because Stiles seriously could not stop thinking about him.

 

***

 

It had been two weeks since Derek had spoken to Stiles, and he couldn’t stop thinking about him. He had no clue how his mild crush had turned into something real, but it had. He missed talking to Stiles, was constantly itching to text him, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He was afraid to hear that Stiles had hooked up with some girl. Derek didn’t think he could handle the jealousy.

But he didn’t think he could handle the silence either. So when Stiles texted him out of the blue, he couldn’t ignore the twinge of relief he felt in his stomach to be hearing from his friend.

 _Hey Derek, I swear to god I saw someone just like you walking ahead of me this morning when I was heading to class. Realised I hadn’t texted you in ages._ **[Received 14:33]**

Huh. How strange. Derek was reminded of all the times he'd seen Stiles out of the corner of his eyes. He knew it was impossible, and he’d never caught more than a glimpse of a guy. But there was either a very similar young man attending Derek’s college, or his mind was playing tricks on him. It was funny to think that Stiles had thought he’d seen Derek too.

 _Hey Stiles. Sometimes I think see you walking around campus too, just out of the corner of my eye. The guy I think I see wears glasses though so it can’t be you. How have you been? I’ve missed talking to you._ **[Sent 14:35]**

Derek instantly regretted being so honest in his message. He’d typed _I’ve missed you_ , then changed it, but he hoped it didn’t still sound too full on, or clingy. Either way it didn’t matter, because Derek’s heart sunk when his phone went off again.

 _Dude, I wear glasses sometimes! Must be my clone though. Anyway I have a tonne of assignments to do. talk to you later._ **[Received 14:39]**

Just like that, their conversation was over. There was no ‘I’ve missed talking to you too’ or any questions about Derek’s life. Stiles was just too busy with his own life to talk to Derek.

He sighed and lay back on the grass where he’d been reading his book. He felt so upset, so crushed by his stupid feelings for Stiles that clearly weren’t returned. And why should Stiles like him? Derek was just some guy from lacrosse camp who Stiles occasionally talked to. He looked up at the blue sky and wondered why it was such a pleasant day when he felt like crying. The sky should have been cloudy, and it would have been more fitting if it were raining. That would match his feelings. Instead, Derek blocked the sun from his eyes while around him he heard the sounds of people talking and laughing as they enjoyed the beautiful day.

He switched his phone off without replying to Stiles’ last message. Stiles didn’t seem like he wanted to talk to him, so he wouldn’t bother. He needed to get over his stupid crush and find someone who actually liked him, and who was less geographically challenged. Maybe it was about time he took up Laura’s friend’s offer to set him up on a blind date.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if this was a really boring chapter. I don't know how well I wrote Stiles and Erica's interactions, and I've become a bit disillusioned with this story. I've been working on another fic idea, and it's sort of taken up all of my imagination and passion. 
> 
> I think I've got about three more chapters of this left to bring the story to where I want it to finish. And then I'll probably write a fluffy epilogue. Of course, I've been working on this at snails pace, so sorry again for that.
> 
> Feedback and criticism is welcome, and let me know if i missed any typos.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles and Derek ignore each other and mope some more, while Lydia's match-making efforts finally start heading in the right direction.

Stiles was tempted to chuck his phone across the room after his last message to Derek. He hadn’t texted Derek for over two weeks, hoping that some radio silence would quash Stiles’ feelings for him, but it hadn’t worked, and in a moment of weakness Stiles had given in.

Of course, after Derek texted him straight back, Stiles immediately lied about having a tonne of assignments to do, begging off from talking to Derek. The assignment thing wasn’t a lie, but it was an excuse, which was just as bad.

Stiles just couldn’t handle the fact that he’d rambled drunk on the phone to Derek, and spilled his feelings. More so, he couldn’t handle the fact that Derek had pretended it hadn’t happened. Erica, who was turning out to be a really cool friend after all, had told him that maybe he was overreacting, and that Derek really hadn’t heard anything. But Stiles couldn’t deal with the anxiety of bringing it up only to be shut down.

He wanted to just get back to being pen-pals with Derek. Or, y’know, text-buddies or whatever the fuck they actually were. He missed it. Derek had been one of his closest friends, someone he could always message when he wanted to talk someone over the past year or so. But things had gotten complicated and Stiles was just going to have to play it cool for a while.

Part of him wanted to just hop on a plane to New York and see Derek in person. He could probably find one of Derek’s sisters on facebook and tee up the visit as a surprise or something. At least that would be something proactive. Proactively crazy, unfortunately. At the same time though, it’d almost be worth it if Lydia would finally stop trying to set Stiles up with people. After the near-disastrous night with Erica, Lydia just felt more inspired to find the right person for Stiles, and he wasn’t sure how to tell Lydia that he was actually into someone else already.  
  


***

  
“Would you look at that, someone decided to emerge from his man cave of pity for a change,” Laura said while walking over to Derek for a hug.

Derek begrudgingly accepted the hug but tried to ignore her teasing words. It may have been true that he’d been even more down these last couple of weeks, and Stiles’ last weird texts that day definitely weren’t helping either.

Unfortunately Derek had to head to his shift at the library. “I’ll be home at 6, okay Laura?” Derek called behind him as he slipped out the front door.

 “Be a good boy and try and make some friends for a change!” Laura yelled.

Even though his sister couldn’t see, Derek still rolled his eyes. He didn’t think Laura needed to keep prompting him to ‘socialise’ and ‘find new friends’. He was plenty good friends with Allison, one of the girls who also worked at the library, and he was getting to know two boys from the lacrosse team pretty well, Isaac and Boyd. Despite this, he promised himself that he would be on his best behaviour during his shift, and try and be a bit friendlier. If there was any way he could prove to Laura that he wasn’t socially inept, he would.

  
***

  
Derek really was having a boring shift at the library, and had actually gotten to the stage where he would rather help out some of the students than sit out the check out desk and do nothing.

He walked over to where Allison was searching through the shelves and gave her a gentle shove with his shoulder.

Allison shoved right back before pulling out what she had obviously been looking for, some gigantic looking textbook about veterinary science.

“Hey Derek,” Allison said, her face all smiles as usual. “Getting bored at the front desk? I can go take over for a bit, but can you give this to Scott? He’s just at the table behind you.” It seemed like Derek didn’t even have to ask to swap jobs with her, Allison was just that fantastic and apparently a mind reader too. They’d gotten along since day one and had slipped into an easy friendship since then, and Derek would always be thankful that Allison instinctively understood his quiet nature.

 Derek took the book from Allison and strolled over to where the Scott fellow was. He was obviously a friend of Allison’s if she knew his name and was helping him with such easy tasks. He felt guilty for prying her away but figured she would’ve said something if she’d been unhappy.

“Hey man, Allison said you were looking for this book?” Derek slipped the book onto the table, trying not to startle Scott too much. Derek was pretty sure he’d helped him out a few times before actually, and a flicker of recognition seemed to spread over Scott’s face when he looked up.

“Thanks, Derek. Umm. What happened to Allison?” He craned his neck around, but assuming Allison hadn’t been waylaid on her way back to the counter, she’d be out of sight from here.

“Sorry, Scott was it? She’s taken over at the desk. Can I help you with anything else?

“Oh.” Scott seemed a bit disappointed, but still smiled politely as he said, “I think I’m good for now, thanks for your help though.”

“I could use your help though,” someone said from behind the boys.

Both Derek and Scott turned around in surprise, not having any idea that someone had crept up on them.

“Oh, hey Lydia,” Derek said. It wasn’t the first time he’d met Lydia, since she was a pretty good friend of Laura’s - the very same friend who kept offering to set Derek up, although so far he had managed to avoid all attempts.

“Wait, how do you know Derek?” Scott asked, clearly confused at what was going on. He actually looked pretty cute when he was looking like a befuddled puppy dog. Derek wondered if Allison was more than just a friend of Scott’s after all.

“I’m friends with his sister, keep up Scott,” Lydia replied. “Actually, seeing you two together has given me a great idea.”

Derek definitely wasn’t happy to see a certain sly look come over Lydia’s face. Scott seemed just as worried himself – he must have been used to Lydia’s antics as well.

Lydia snapped her fingers and pointed at Derek. “What are you doing on Friday night?” she asked.

Without a ready excuse prepared, he replied honestly. “Nothing?”

“Good,” Lydia said, “I’ll text you the details.”  
  
“Details for what?” Derek asked, not following her meaning at all.

“I think you should meet Scott’s roommate. Scott, next time you see Przemyslaw, tell him I know that he has Friday night free, and that if he doesn’t do what I say I’ll make him come shopping with me again.”  
  
“Ok, I’ll tell him.” Scott replied almost instantly. He could vividly remember the last time Stiles had returned from a shopping trip with Lydia, and he’d had to listen to Stiles whining about his sore feet for at least 2 hours. He did not want to put up with that shit again.

“I don’t think he’ll be too happy about this though Lydia, he’s really not that keen on dating.” Scott said, trying to be a good friend and stick up for his buddy.

Lydia did not look like she was going to give Scott the time of the day though, already starting to walk towards the library. “Just tell him that I think Derek’s a much better pick than my last suggestion!” she yelled over her shoulder. Before either of the boys could say anything else, she was gone.

“Well at least he has a thing for boys named Derek,” Scott mumbled while he packed up his thing.

“Wait, what?” Derek had finally caught up on what was happening and didn’t quite understand how he’d just agreed to a date with… what was his name again?

“Did Lydia make up this kid’s name? Scott, what the hell is going on?”

Scott grabbed Derek by both shoulders before looking him in the eye. “If you know what Lydia is like, just go with the flow. My roommate’s a legend anyway, so you should count yourself lucky, okay? I’ll see you later.”

Well, Derek figured Laura would finally be off his back - he’d finally gotten himself a date. Unfortunately he had never met the guy and, shit, he still didn’t know how to pronounce his name. Oh, and he still had two hours left of his shift. Was it weird that all he wanted to do was text Stiles about his weird day? It’s not like he had any urgent work to do, but he wasn’t so sure that Stiles would want to hear from him. He left his phone in his pocket and wandered over to talk to Allison instead.

  
***

  
“Stiles, I know you think you’re being subtle but I can see you staring at your phone, you gigantic dope.” Scott plonked on the couch next to his best friend, who really was being a bit of a moron, what with the amount of brooding that was going on. Stiles basically had stress oozing out of his pores, he was that unhappy.

“Why don’t you just text Derek, call him even? It’s clearly bugging you bro,” Scott said, the concern for his friend outweighing his slight annoyance at Stiles’ recent grumpiness.

“Scott buddy, I really don’t think it’s a good idea. What’s the point? I’m just trying to forget about my stupid crush on him.”

“Well that’s clearly working well, isn’t it?”

“Wow,” Stiles said, shoving Scott to try and wipe the smirk off his face. “The sarcasm is strong with this one.”

“I just know how much his friendship means to you Stiles, buddy.” Scott shuffled over on the couch so that he could properly grab hold of Stiles’ attention. “Look, I know when I was busy trying to improve my grades last year, we didn’t have as much time to hang out and shoot the shit. But I knew you had Derek to talk to, so I didn’t feel so bad about it, y’know? You guys clearly clicked when you met, and you somehow made your long distance friendship work with him afterwards That’s got to mean something.”

“I know, I know. Thanks for trying to knock some sense into me, Scott, you are not only a halo legend, but a legendary friend too.”  
  
“Speaking of halo,” Scott said as he leant over to boot up their Xbox.

“Yep, let’s play. But maybe let me win a few games? I need to take my mind off the whole Derek saga. Oh and the fact that Lydia set me up on a date. I can’t believe you didn’t talk her out of it!”

Scott looked kind of sheepish at that, and didn’t even try and defend himself when Stiles whacked him with the cushion to let out his annoyance.

“Sorry dude. Anyway, Allison is a friend of this dude, and she said he’s actually a really nice guy. Except for the fact that he keeps sending Allison away from me at the library. But I guess that’s probably a good thing since I get more work done, whenever she’s around I get distracted by her… her everything. Anyway, ummm,” Scott trailed off.

“In amongst all the waxing-poetical about Allison, you were saying something about this guy I’m going on a date with?” Stiles prompted.

“Oh yeah, Derek, he’s alright. You might even hit it off?”  
  
“Wait, his name’s fucking Derek too? Jesus dick on a stick has karma got it out for me.”

Stiles couldn’t believe his luck. Or, lack of luck? Whatever, it just seemed fucking ridiculous that he was going on a date with a Derek while pining over a different Derek. Maybe they were clones? That’d be all right. With any luck, Stiles would have a good night, or at least a good meal out for a change. But after this he was _definitely_ telling Lydia no more blind dates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, apparently it's been 6 months since the last chapter? And this chapter is infuriatingly short. Oops. This is what happens when stories don't get planned out properly and I get stuck instead. I'm a terrible person and a terrible writer. But we're finally close to some Stiles/Derek interaction guys, I promise! 
> 
> Any and all feedback welcomed, you can find me on tumblr [here.](http://keziahahale.tumblr.com)

**Author's Note:**

> I completely and utterly owe this fic to [ this tumblr post](http://agentotter.tumblr.com/post/51358440676/detectivebuttcop-swingsetindecember#notes) that i happened to spy on. It's completely inspired me and provided so many good ideas.
> 
> Warning: it will be a while between posts, so run away if you hate WIPs.
> 
> My first fic so any and all feedback/critques/corrections are welcome! Find me on tumblr too, i'm keziahahale.tumblr.com


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